Whether your ancestors lived in a state-land or public-land state affects the land records you'll look for. Learn which states fall into which category.

The types and locations of your ancestors' land records depend on
whether he lived in a state-land state or a public-land state. Before
state-land states became US territories, entities such as Colonial
governments controlled, surveyed and distributed their land. Early
property-transaction records are usually in those states' archives. The
US government owned the land in public-land states before they entered
the Union; the National Archives and Records Administration has records
of federal government land sales.

PUBLIC-LAND STATES

• Alabama

• Alaska

• Arizona

• Arkansas

• California

• Colorado

• Florida

• Idaho

• Illinois

• Indiana

• Iowa

• Kansas

• Louisiana

• Michigan

• Minnesota

• Mississippi

• Missouri

• Montana

• Nebraska

• Nevada

• New Mexico

• North Dakota

• Ohio (parts were surveyed under earlier systems)

• Oklahoma

• Oregon

• South Dakota

• Utah

• Washington

• Wisconsin

• Wyoming

STATE-LAND STATES

• Connecticut

• Delaware

• Georgia

• Hawaii

• Kentucky

• Maine

• Maryland

• Massachusetts

• New Hampshire

• New Jersey

• New York

• North Carolina

• Pennsylvania

• Rhode Island

• South Carolina

• Tennessee

• Texas

• Vermont

• Virginia

• West Virginia

Our Land Records 101 Family Tree University course
will give you more details on public-land and state-land states, as
well as where to find records of land transactions in each. You'll also
learn how to find your ancestors' deeds (recording transfers between
private individuals), how to use a legal land description to determine
exactly where your ancestor's land was, and more.